Cribs are conventionally utilized as sleeping means for infants, typically from birth to an age of 2 to 3 years. Conventional cribs are designed from the viewpoint of both convenience and safety and typically provide headboards and footboards, as well as left and right sides which are of sufficient height to prevent any infant from climbing out of the crib and to encourage the infant to stand and grip the crib sides, if necessary, while preventing the child from falling out of the crib. At least one of the sides is movable between a locked upper position and a lowered position to facilitate placement or removal of the child from the crib by the parent, for example. The crib mattress is adjustably arranged to be of a height so that the supporting surface of the crib mattress permits the infant to be placed upon the mattress or removed therefrom without undue bending by the person attending to the infant, while being a sufficient distance below the top sides of the crib to prevent an infant from falling or climbing out.
The above safety and convenience features are typically incorporated into conventional crib designs. Many of these features are inconvenient when the infant reaches an age where he/she outgrows a crib. For example, once the child can satisfactorily perform the functions of sitting, climbing and walking, for example, the crib sides become an inconvenience. In addition, even though the child has mastered the activities of climbing up or down from a surface, such as a bed or crib to the floor, it is nevertheless disadvantageous to have a child occupy a crib totally unprotected by the crib sidewalls due to the danger of falling.
It thus becomes a practical necessity to replace the child's crib with a toddler bed which provides features not found in a crib and which further encourages the child to become more independent by developing less of a dependency upon the safety features of a crib which are necessarily provided to protect infants, but are no longer necessary to protect a toddler and hence become a matter of inconvenience to the toddler. Nevertheless, it is advantageous to provide safety rails designed to prevent the child from accidentally falling out of the bed when sleeping, for example, while at the same time being designed to encourage the child to climb into and out of the toddler bed.
As a result, it becomes necessary to replace the crib with a toddler bed to meet the requirements of the growing child.
In much the same way that an infant outgrows a crib, the toddler eventually outgrows the toddler bed necessitating still another change in which the toddler bed is typically replaced by a twin bed.
All of the above changes are both costly and inconvenient and it is thereby extremely advantageous to provide a bed structure which is capable of "growing with the child", and at a significantly reduced cost.
In addition to the above, cribs and beds of the type described are typically available in a wide variety of styles and/or motifs to attract the widest range of potential customers. This is extremely disadvantageous from the point of view of retailers and wholesalers, as well as crib manufacturers. The disadvantage from the point of view of retailers and wholesalers is that a large amount of space is required for inventory. This problem is further compounded for the retailer who requires a large amount of display space in order to be assured that the customer is made fully aware of the wide range of available designs. In a similar manner, the manufacturer is required to produce a wide variety of bed designs thereby complicating the manufacturing process. It is therefore extremely advantageous to provide a bed design incorporating as many common components as is practical, while providing additional components having design motifs which are adaptable to the variety of tastes and likings of the potential purchasing public.